From the Lower Deck: The Old Navy 1780-1840

Henry Baynham

In From the Lower Deck Baynham tries to show us what life was like for
ordinary seamen in the British navy during the heyday of "fighting sail".
He has collected extracts from some ten first-hand accounts and linked
them together with his own commentary. Most of the material is from
the years from 1800 to 1815, but some extends backwards to the American
War of Independence and forwards to the foundation of the gunnery school
HMS Excellent.

Many of the passages have been chosen for dramatic and historical
interest: accounts of Cape St Vincent, the Nile, Trafalgar, the United
States versus the Macedonian, and Navarino as well as more obscure
but nevertheless exciting actions. Other passages illustrate the less
exciting aspects of lower deck life: desertion and the press gang,
discipline and floggings, the tedium of convoy duty, living conditions,
feelings about officers, and so forth. The resulting picture, while
lively and engaging, still seems rather distant — but then the only way
for us to obtain a really intimate feel for the life Baynham describes
is probably to do a stint in one of the world's less pleasant penal
systems. From the Lower Deck is a valuable counterpoint to the more
common "quarterdeck" views of naval service during the period, be they
biographies of Nelson or works of fiction.